Bigelow a lock & Cameron is hurt

Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman ever to win an Oscar for Best Directing in the Oscars. As Barbara Streisand said, opening the envelope: “The time has come.” And after 81 years, yeah, you could say that.

Writing this, I’m assuming most of you have seen James Cameron’s $2.5 billion highest-grossing-film-of-all-time, Avatar. I have witnessed the blue dudes romping around under Eywa twice, once in 2-D, again in 3-D. Critics and apparently audiences hailed it as a masterpiece. I roll my eyes at the preachy-ness of the whole thing—we got it, Mother Earth is beautiful, we are all connected—gag—humans suck, we should all turn Na’vi when the world inevitably ends and technical brilliance and lots of cash is a guaranteed nod for Oscar, Golden Globe, BAFTA, etc nominations.

Jeremy Renner stars as Staff Sergeant William James and Evangeline Lilly is Connie James in The Hurt Locker

At the 82^nd Academy Awards the Best Picture Oscar went to Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker making it the lowest-grossing film to have ever won Best Picture (the highest grossing was Cameron’s Titanic in 1998.) Bigelow beat out competition from the likes of An Education—from the dude who did About a Boy and a dazzling performance from Carey Mulligan; Up—the animated thing that had us all so blurry eyed in the first 10 minutes that the mediocrity of the next 60 mattered not a bit; Inglorious Basterds—where Christoph Waltz and an underrated Melanie Laurent were so radiant that the last act will and should just be ignored for the sake of critique; Precious—the film that got Mariah Carey fugly and brought forth a talent in Sidibe and a formidable presence in Mo’nique; and yes, even Avatar—a nice looking film with horrifyingly cringe worthy dialogue—think I’m wrong? The freakin’ film was centred round protecting something called.....wait for it......unobtanium. Say that with a straight face.

The gods of Corrie, Enders and Neighbours descended upon Hollywood as the Oscars took a rather dramatic twist: Bigelow was once married to James Cameron, whom she not only beat in both Best Director and Best Picture but as well as in the overall tally with The Hurt Locker taking home six awards out of nine nominations to Avatar’s three awards out of, again, nine nominations. You can’t write that shit, can you?

Want to know the other irony? There has not been a more testosterone-driven movie this decade.

You, reader, have probably not seen The Hurt Locker. Made for a puny budget, it has so far only grossed about $20 million. I don’t blame you. It does not look like a fun film, does it? And it’s not a fun film. It is however one of the best films of the decade and one of the greatest war films of all time.

It’s more The Deer Hunter than Saving Private Ryan; more psychological take on war than a political stance on the childish argument he said-she said, so here’s whose right. Politics do not have a place in this movie. There are no speeches. Deaths are finger-snap quick. The heroes are not heroes but people. They are multi-faceted. The Iraqis are not villains. Some are victims. Most are just survivors. There are scenes of such tension in this film that your ears will bleed for all the pulsing in them.

Jeremy Renner, nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor, commands the screen as Sergeant William James, a battle-addicted leader of a bomb disposal squad in Iraq. The directing is so masterful that you feel not like a viewer, but a voyeur, watching close enough to the sidelines to be uninjured, near enough to the centre to be terrified. The cinematography from Brian Ackroyd, the man responsible for the cinematography in The Wind That Shakes The Barley once again makes the scenery a character in itself. Great films have a great supporting cast and Renner is supported to Oscar-nominated glory by the stupendous Anthony Mackie as James’ team member who is often annoyed by James’ recklessness and the emotionally captivating Brian Geraghty, a soldier who wants to serve his time then get home.

I saw this film courtesy of NUIG’s Film Society a few months ago. I sat near the back, prepared to walk out if it turned out to be just another artsy film that critics love and we, the popcorn eating audience, are bored senselessly by. I was riveted.

But don’t take my word on it. See it for yourself. It’s out on dvd now. Personally, I’m going to wait a few months. I want to get the dvd edition with the stickers saying: Winner Best Picture and best director for Kathryn Bigelow.

Suck it, Pandora.

By Ciara Moyna